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OK, we’re back and ready to begin. Last week I sanded the lacquer finish off of most of the neck and prepped the fingerboard to receive new fret wire. I used a radius block to sand the fingerboard and maintain its 7.25-inch radius, and ran the grits from 180 to 600. Since this neck is going to be oil finished, I wanted it to feel as silky and smooth as possible.

The best parts of SXSW are the surprise moments. The bands you don’t plan to see, the people you had no idea you’d meet, the sheer unpredictability that forces you to just go with the flow. Most of my favorite SXSW moments this year stem from accidentally encountered awesomeness. But that said, it’s no accident that these performers are at SXSW.

Last time we scoped out the diminished-sounding root/flat-fifth chord shape (Figure 1), a tension-building power chord I use in the intro to "Rise" [Vulgar Display of Power]. This time around we're gonna get into some more tricky-sounding diads. (a diad is a two note chord: a power chord that can add extra color and dimension to your rhythm playing.)

Most writers are fine with digital clips. It's efficient, instant and not to mention environmentally responsible. Being able to hit "send" on a press kit as opposed to mailing it has generated plenty of quick, quality coverage for me. I've literally seen next-day coverage by doing it that way.

I’m not a collector by nature. It seems like after 20 years in the business I’d have all sorts of valuable music-related artifacts. Instead, my office is dotted with just a couple of guitars, a blizzard of press releases and small handful of weird memorabilia that has somehow stuck to my walls and shelves like chewed gum on the bottom of a shoe.

In the six years since her last release, Let Your Ghost Go, Megan Reilly started a family, toured with Neko Case, The Mekons, Tom Verlaine and Grant Lee Philips, and moved twice. And, of course, she has been plugging away at writing and recording her new album, The Well, which is slated to step into the light on April 24.

On Tuesday, March 13, Van Halen rolled into Manchester, New Hampshire, and played to a packed house at the Verizon Wireless Arena. The city was taken over by Van Halen fever. Every bar I walked into was packed to the gills, cranking stuff like “Drop Dead Legs" from 1984.

It was on this day in 1976 that Kiss released perhaps their best-known studio album, Destroyer. Paul, Gene, Ace and Peter started work on their fifth studio album in the fall of 1975 at New York City's Electric Lady Studios, getting in only a handful of days of tracking before heading back out on the road for their famous Alive! tour.

"Jeff Buckley release only one full-length studio album in his lifetime, 1994's Grace," writes Dale Turner, "but in the 15 years since his passing on May 29, 1997, his influence endures, often cited as an inspiration by artist like Radiohead, Chris Cornell, Muse, Coldplay and a host of newer acts."